Collaborative Research: An Integrated Experimental and Computational Approach to Discover Biomechanical Mechanisms of Leaf Epidermal Morphogenesis

合作研究：探索叶表皮形态发生生物力学机制的综合实验和计算方法

基本信息

批准号：
1715544
负责人：
Daniel Szymanski
金额：
$ 91.41万
依托单位：
Purdue University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-08-01 至 2023-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1715544&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Integrated Experimental Computational

项目摘要

The size and shape of leaves are important agricultural traits that strongly influence crop yield. The growth of individual cells collectively determine leaf morphology, and a major challenge in biology is to understand how cellular constituents pattern the cell wall to influence local rates and directions of cell growth. This project focuses on discovering the growth control mechanisms of the outer layer of cells that form the leaf epidermis. The epidermis serves both as a waterproof layer that protects the leaf and as a growing biomechanical shell that influences the size and shape of the leaf. This project aims to understand how cell signaling and cytoskeletal patterning is controlled among adherent cells and how local growth can scale to influence tissue or whole leaf traits. The Broader Impact activities include interdisciplinary training for all members of the team (including undergraduates and high school students). A K-12 summer camp module will also be developed for the Young Nebraska Scientist Program. The Arabidopsis leaf epidermal morphogenesis system is ideally suited for major breakthroughs. However, progress has been slow because of the lack of reliable phenotyping methods to define genetic pathways and analyze the non-intuitive biomechanical interactions that occur among the cytoskeleton, cell wall, and cell geometry. The interdisciplinary research team will create a new experimental and computational approach to discover how microtubule-dependent patterning of cellulose microfibrils drives polarized growth in the epidermis. The resulting computational models will make predictions about the how cells generate the spatial and temporal heterogeneities in the cell wall that drive interdigitated growth of these jig-saw-puzzle shaped cells. Importantly, biomechanical feedback control of the cell wall on the microtubule cytoskeleton is a general feature of plant development. The proposed research will generate data and create integrated computational models that reveal how cell wall stress patterns influence cortical microtubules and tissue morphogenesis.

叶子的大小和形状是重要影响作物产量的重要农业特征。单个细胞的生长共同确定了叶片的形态，生物学的主要挑战是了解细胞成分如何对细胞壁进行模具以影响局部速率和细胞生长方向。该项目着重于发现形成叶片表皮的细胞外层的生长控制机理。表皮既是保护叶子的防水层，又是影响叶片大小和形状的生物力学壳。该项目旨在了解细胞信号传导和细胞骨架模式如何在粘附细胞中控制以及局部生长如何扩展以影响组织或整个叶片特征。更广泛的影响活动包括对团队所有成员（包括本科生和高中生）的跨学科培训。还将为年轻的内布拉斯加州科学家计划开发K-12夏令营模块。拟南芥叶表皮形态发生系统非常适合重大突破。然而，由于缺乏可靠的表型方法来定义遗传途径并分析细胞骨架，细胞壁和细胞几何形状之间发生的非直觉生物力学相互作用。跨学科研究团队将创建一种新的实验和计算方法，以发现纤维素微纤维的微管依赖性图案如何驱动表皮中极化的生长。所得的计算模型将对细胞在细胞壁中产生空间和时间异质性的方式进行预测，这些空间和时间异质性驱动了这些夹具 - 锯齿状形状的细胞的相互插头的生长。重要的是，微管细胞骨架上细胞壁的生物力学反馈控制是植物发育的一般特征。拟议的研究将生成数据并创建集成的计算模型，以揭示细胞壁应力模式如何影响皮质微管和组织形态发生。